Shared-media communication networks, such as power-line communication (PLC) networks (a type of communication over power-lines), provide an enabling technology for networking communication and can be used for example in AMI networks, and are also useful within home and buildings. Interestingly, PLC lines share many characteristics with low power radio (wireless) technologies. In particular, though each device in a given PLC network may each be connected to the same physical power-line, a PLC link is very much a multi-hop link, and connectivity is highly unpredictable, thus requiring multi-hop routing when the signal is too weak. For instance, even in a building the average number of hops is between two and three (even larger when having to cross phases), while on an AMI network, on the same power phase line, the number of hops may vary during a day between one and 15-20. Those skilled in the art would recognize that due to various reasons, including long power lines, interferences, etc., a PLC commendation may traverse multiple hops. In other words, PLC cannot be seen as a “flat wire” equivalent to broadcast media (such as Ethernet), since they are multi-hop networks by essence.
One of the main challenges, though, is to determine placement of routers in the shared-media networks. Indeed, consider the case of the PLC line to which a few hundreds of meters are connected (e.g., the number of meters may vary between five and more than one thousand). Signal attenuation and interferences can lead to the need to regenerate the signal, which should of course not be performed by all nodes, or else congestion, delays and collisions may occur.